Hatching Period of Mantidcp in Eastern Bengal. 269 



" I spoke of tlie Ameles alone. In confinement the 

 creature, when left quiet, generally sat motionless on a 

 twig near the bottom of the case, but when irritated or 

 stirred by a twig, or when the case was moved suddenly 

 so as to frighten the Mantis, it would then hop up, much 

 in the way a grasshopper does." 



I have watched the habits of so-called larvne and pupge, 

 as well as adults, of Mantida belonging to several genera 

 and species, and have even bred two or three species from 

 egg-masses laid by females kept in confinement, but have 

 not hitherto met with a single one possessing the slightest 

 ability for executing the considerable leaps* observed by 

 Mr. Forbes in this Portuguese Ameles ; all having been 

 remarkable rather for the slowness and deliberateness 

 and cautiousness of all their movements, particularly the 

 young. 



4. On the Hatching Period of Mantidre i7i Eastern 

 Bengal. [Read October 2nd, 1878.] 



In Europe, according to de Saussure,tthe eggs oi Mantis 

 and Ameles, laid in September, are not hatched till the 

 following June, development being arrested by the cold of 

 winter; and the young attain the adult condition in about 

 three months, undergoing in that short period of time a 

 series of not less than seven ecdyses, the first of Avhich 

 takes place at the moment of hatching, the second twelve 

 to fifteen days later, the third fifteen to twenty after that, 

 and the rest at intervals, the precise length of which has 

 not been ascertained, owing to the difficulty of rearing 

 these animals in captivity. Copulation takes place, and 

 the egg-capsules are deposited, in August or September, 

 after which all the insects die off, and no more are to be . 



* Mr. F. P. Pascoe, F.R.S., recently obtained a specimen of the same 

 species in Spain, and noticed that it possessed a similar power. 



f Mission So. au Mex. et dans I'Amer. Cent., Recherches Zool., VIme 

 part, Orthopt. pp. 219, 220. 



